This week’s gallery picks have a focus on the lines between nostalgia and current events.

*            *            *

1. A rare opportunity to see 14 American quilts dating from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s at Minneapolis Institute of Art
2. Through the power of artistic expression, HEATWAVE celebrates a season that personifies escapism and outside culture. The sensation of sand between your toes, an idyllic romp in the green grass, a sweaty late night rendezvous–all this and more drips with newfound perspective via ceramic booty sculptures, vibrant paintings, paper cutouts and textiles at Stefanie Chefas Gallery
3. ABOVE’s stencil and text-based artworks usually have a strong message or awareness about social, political, or international current events, while his abstract works are a visual language of shape, color, and form at The Quin Hotel
4. Stephanie Syjuco’s Neutral Calibration Studies (Ornament + Crime) features works across a wide swath of media that touch on the legacy of historical colonialism, fictional fabrications, and perceptual studies of photographic “neutrality” at Catherine Clark Gallery
5. Mark DeLong’s Several Shades of Sugar at Cooper Cole Gallery
6. Luke Pelletier’s newest body of work continues to riff on his own moral dilemmas of romance, self reliance, and leisure, playing with ironic twists on both tourist culture and American nostalgia at New Image Art